ABC Four Corners: Cocaine Nation Monday 22 May allows dealers to break their silence.

Australia’s cocaine dealers have broken their silence to justify their criminal activities, with one even claiming a judge sniffed a line for him.

The ABC gave the drug dealers a platform to speak at next Monday night’s Four Corners and several, with their identities concealed by masks, scarves and balaclavas, jumped at the chance.

They were keen to clear up what they see as public misconceptions about what they do and about being seen legitimate businessmen meeting a demand from some of society’s highest echelons.

‘Everyone is working on it. I’ve personally seen judges drink it with a glass of single malt,” a man wearing a khaki jacket, mirrored sunglasses and rubber gloves told ABC reporter Mahmood Fazal.

So that you don’t forget to pay your dealer, one wears a hockey mask like the immortal serial killer Michael Myers preferred in Halloween

“I’m not an outlaw trying to rub the police in the face. I’d rather hang out with people than over a cup of coffee.’

Another man in a balaclava told Mr. Fazal that the appeal of being a drug dealer is to show people that you have overcome poverty.

“It’s an ego thing: when you come from nothing, it’s about making something [of yourself].’

But their legitimacy is belied by the fact that most don’t want to show their faces; the range of face coverings is impressive.

We see men in sunglasses, balaclavas, balaclavas and what appears to be a Mexican wrestling mask. And so you don’t forget to pay your dealer, one of them wears a hockey mask like the immortal serial killer Michael Myers preferred in Halloween.

The program prides itself on revealing “the highs and lows” of people involved in moving illicit drugs into and around Australia.

These include ‘traders, importers, street dealers and high-ranking cartel agents who violate their duty of confidentiality’.

That code includes any public acknowledgment that the cocaine trade exists, let alone is organized to fix prices.

But one of Sydney’s dealers, an imposing man in a black hoodie, thick gold chain and disguised by a hockey mask, claimed that Australia does have its own ‘cartel’.

Australia’s cocaine dealers have broken their silence to justify their criminal activities, with one even claiming a judge sniffed a line for him

A drug cartel is a criminal organization made up of independent drug lords who conspire to control prices and prevent competition.

Australians are among the highest per capita users of cocaine in the world, even though they pay more than most countries, in many cases more than $450 per gram.

Sydneysiders are the largest consumers compared to all capital cities.

While the latest wastewater analysis showed that coke use had fallen in the year to August 2022, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) said it was not because people’s appetites had changed.

“The ACIC judges that the low level of cocaine use is mainly due to seizures and detections by law enforcement that restricted supply, as there is no tangible evidence of a decline in demand,” the ACIC said in March 2023.

ACIC said communities pay for drug use through “violence, road trauma, property crime, disease, injury and death” [due to] drug use’.

It added that much of the damage caused by organized crime is due to illegal drugs.